Peter T. Schulte     

Advised by: Professor Andrew Rapoff Ph.D.

Union College Department of Mechanical Engineering 2010

Design and Construction of a Load-Bearing Exoskeleton Testing Apparatus

Over the course of the next two terms I will be working to design and construct an external, mechanical apparatus to assist in distributing a carried load in a more advantageous way. This will allow the user to more effectively perform necessary tasks with a higher mobility than he or she would otherwise experience. Such a device would be ideal for people such as hikers, firefighters, construction workers and or even soldiers, and could possibly reduce injury to these personnel by safely reallocating loads that are normally quite heavy.

Coming Soon: Links to Project Plan, Resources, Sketches, etc.

Important Links:

Project Plan (submitted 9/21)

IEF Proposal (submitted 10/5)

Weekly Progress:

Week 2: 9/9-9/15

Wrote project plan; Drafted project webpage

Week 2: 9/16-9/22

Created preliminary design sketches; Purchased, formatted, and updated project notebook; Decided on final project scaling (changed to a model apparatus); Created and published webpage

Week 3: 9/23-9/29

Began research on necessary IEF fund materials; Updated notebook; Refined specific design features, Specifically joints

Week 4: 9/30-10/6

Drafted, edited and finished IEF Proposal for submittal; Created more detailed design sketches

Week 5: 10/7-10/13

Created a mock-up scale model of the device for experimentation and illustration.

Resources:

Please feel free to contact me with questions or comments at: schultep@union.edu